All-time Favorite Albums...........

[Angels]

We all have been in IBC threads stating our current music faves, ipod songs, current hits, BS, tours, etc.

More important than some songs are great bands, and the greatest albums made by those great bands, who write great songs that their fans love.

There are a lot of great songs. But few great albums.

What are your favorite all-time albums? If you were stuck on an island and all? I think a dozen is fair.

My List (which most of you wouldn't like at all):

1. God Forbid - Constitution of Treason (fave CD of my fave band)
2. Killswitch Engage - Alive or Just Breathing (fave CD of my 2nd fave band)
3. Lamb of God - Wrath - Best CD of 2009. Period.
4. All That Remains - The Fall of Ideals
5. Skid Row - Slave To the Grind - Best metal album of the early 90's
6. Pantera - Vulgar Display of Power - Dimebag!
7. Iron Maiden - Number of the Beast - Early 80's at it's best!
8. Judas Priest - Painkiller - Better than Screaming for Vengence.
9. Slayer - Reign in Blood - The Best thrash metal album of all-time!
10. Anthrax - Spreading the Disease - Greatest early 80's metal album!

Honorable mention:
Saxon - Power and the Glory (underrated band, always one of my faves)
Accept - Balls to the Wall (everyone remembers just BTTW, but the whole record was great)
Armorded Saint - Symbol of Salvation. (Pritchard's best album and songwriting.) Sad his leukemia took over.

[Angels]

Misseed a few:

AC/DC - Highway to Hell - Back in Black rocked, but we all know which album was better!!!

Soundgarden - BadMotorFinger - Best Seattle Grundge CD ever!

[Angels]

By the way - since this is my thread, my rules:

No Greatest Hits or Live albums.

[Orioles]

Good thread. #1's easy for me. The other 9 I gotta think about first...

1. Exile on Main Street - The Rolling Stones

[Astros]

That Lonesome Song-Jamey Johnson
Relentless-Jason Aldean

I pretty much just wait on greatest hits and box sets

[DBacks]

1) Yourself Or Someone Like You - matchbox twenty
2) We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. - Jason Mraz
3) More Than You Think You Are - matchbox twenty
4) Room for Squares - John Mayer
5) The Marshall Mathers LP - Eminem
6) Dizzy Up The Girl - Goo Goo Dolls
7) True Love - Toots and The Maytals
Mad Season - matchbox twenty
9) The Script - The Script
10) Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga - Spoon

[Nationals]

1. Gimme Fiction, Spoon
2. The Crane Wife, The Decemberists
3. Black Holes and Revelations, Muse
4. Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
5. Girls Can Tell, Spoon
6. Employment, Kaiser Chiefs
7. Sound of Silver, LCD Soundsystem
8. Kill the Moonlight, Spoon
9. Ligabue, Luciano Ligabue
10. Making Movies, Dire Straits

HM:
Purple Rain (Prince), Who's Next (The Who), Hot Fuss (The Killers)

[Orioles]

8. Kill the Moonlight, Spoon

This is easily one of my top 15, but might just be squeezed out of my top 10. Still love this album and can't just listen to one song and move on. "The Way We Get By" and "Someone Something" will prob be in every big playlist I ever make. Love the newer albums (esp Gimme Fiction), but never able to get as into any as KTM.

Haven't got The Crane Wife (surprising b/c Decembrists are usually an automatic buy for me), so wondering if you're a fan of all their previous stuff and like that album better (pretty high praise), or just haven't listened much to Castaways & Cutouts or Her Majesty the Decembrists (two albums I really love).

BTW, if anyone gets the Palladia HD network, there's a replay on now of acts from the 2006 Coachella festival, and Radiohead's on now. I went from 2000-2003, and for the most part they had awesome acts, top-to-bottom. Hoping to go back next year if the roster's still as strong as it used to be.

[Nationals]

8. Kill the Moonlight, Spoon

This is easily one of my top 15, but might just be squeezed out of my top 10. Still love this album and can't just listen to one song and move on. "The Way We Get By" and "Someone Something" will prob be in every big playlist I ever make. Love the newer albums (esp Gimme Fiction), but never able to get as into any as KTM.

Haven't got The Crane Wife (surprising b/c Decembrists are usually an automatic buy for me), so wondering if you're a fan of all their previous stuff and like that album better (pretty high praise), or just haven't listened much to Castaways & Cutouts or Her Majesty the Decembrists (two albums I really love).

BTW, if anyone gets the Palladia HD network, there's a replay on now of acts from the 2006 Coachella festival, and Radiohead's on now. I went from 2000-2003, and for the most part they had awesome acts, top-to-bottom. Hoping to go back next year if the roster's still as strong as it used to be.

I am generally a Decemberists fan (I have their catalog...except for their most recent) but to me, the themed-album conceit of Crane Wife is what puts it over the top in terms of listening and re-listening. I'm curiosu to see how your top 10 shape up.

[Yankees]

1) Guns n Roses - Appetite for Destruction - I can't believe that everyone doesn't have this on their list.
2) Tom Petty - Wildflowers - My all-time favorite musician's most thoroughly awesome CD.
3) REM - Automatic for the People - Just an incredibly powerful CD from Drive through all the way through Find the River. Nightswimming and Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight would definitely both make my top 100 songs.
4) Marc Broussard - Carencro - I had this CD in my player for 6 months straight, and still pull it out all the time. Best soft southern rock artist I've ever heard.
5) OAR - In Between Now and Then - My favorite band's most thorough studio album.
6) Jay-Z - The Black Album - The best rap album from the best rapper of all-time. I'm not sure I'd be willing to negotiate off that.
7) A Tribe Called Quest - Midnight Marauders - The album that defined my obsession with early 90's hip-hop. Oh My God and Keep It Rollin are my favorite back-to-back rap songs on an album.
Matchbox 20 - Yourself or Someone Like You - Probably the most thorough pop album of my lifetime. Back 2 Good is one of my favorite songs.
9) Darius Rucker - Learn to Live - I'm sorry, I'd love to not include it, but I haven't stopped listening to it for a month now, and every song on this album is great.
10) Keith Anderson - Three Chord Country and American Rock and Roll -The first country CD purchase that started this whole country thing for me. Every Time I Hear Your Name was one of the first songs that really resonated country for me, Podunk is one of my all-time favorite country songs, and this is my favorite "sit next to a fire pit, drink some beers, and smoke a cigar" I've heard.

Motown is my favorite style of music not included on here - and Steveie Wonder, The Temptations, and Otis Redding all sit in my top 25 favorite artists of all-time - unfortunately my listening history with them is all "Greatest Hits" albums. Sometimes I really wish I was older...

[Orioles]

2) Tom Petty - Wildflowers - My all-time favorite musician's most thoroughly awesome CD.
6) Jay-Z - The Black Album - The best rap album from the best rapper of all-time. I'm not sure I'd be willing to negotiate off that.

Almost settled on 10, but it's funny that before you even posted this, my 10 explicitly disagrees w/ both those statements (namely, what album is Petty's best, and what the best hip-hop album of all-time is).

[Yankees]

Haha - the anticipation mounts...

[Orioles]

Haha - the anticipation mounts...

Sorry. In the process of ditching my shitty old laptop, and it's taken over a week just to transfer the music files via usb cable. still not done, and made the mistake of turning off the old computer, so now I need to get it to turn on again before I can open iTunes again and look thru my music to make sure I didnt forget any biggies.

[Mets]

I'll assume it's my top-10 albums start to finish, no filler, all killer.
Disclaimer - a lot of these have to do with were I was in my life at the time. They've had the biggest impact, and mean the most to me.


1. Crystal Method - VEGAS
2. OutKast - ATLiens
3. Portishead - Dummy
4. Metallica - And Justice for All
5. Thom Yorke - The Eraser
6. Ryan Adams - Love is Hell
7. Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
8. Corrossion of Conformity - Deliverance
9. Cannibal Corpse - The Bleeding
10. Type O Negative - October Rust
11. Tricky - Maxinquaye
12. Stevie Ray Vaughan - Couldn't Stand the Weather
13. Meshuggah - Chaosphere
14. My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges
15. Iron & Wine - The Shepherd's Dog
16. Neva Dinova - Hate Yourself Change
17. The Pogues - Rum, Sodomy & Lash
18. Thievery Corporation - Cosmic Game
19. Killswitch Engage - Alive or just breathing
20. The Roots - Roots Come Alive (almost a greatest hits, but one of the best live albums I've heard)


Music knows no rules Kelly. I could do a top 12 for each genre. Every Memory Has a Soundtrack.

[Royals]

I'm with Z here, GNR's Appetite for Destruction has to be one of the top albums of all time. That said, my musical taste is kind of eclectic...
#2 Michael Jackson - Bad (Thriller was great, but Bad had better secondary stuff IMO)
#3 Bon Jovi - Slippery When wet
#4 Weird Al - Bad Hair Day
#5 ACDC - Highway to Hell
#6 Black Sabbath - Paranoid
#7 They Might Be Giants - Flood
#8 Top Gun Soundtrack (might be cheating, but I don't give a damn)
#9 Beastie Boys - Sounds of Science

[Angels]

"Music knows no rules Kelly. I could do a top 12 for each genre. Every Memory Has a Soundtrack."

Of course Dude, but that would make things too easy. If I made a top 25, 50, 100 etc list, all genres would find multiple spots. Same with everyone else's opinion here. But that's no fun. It just happens that my top 10-15 or so are all metal. The point of the thread was simply to see discuss fave all-time albums and maybe get some recommendations on great CDs to listen to, rather than just a good song by a potential one hit wonder.

As always, I do dig your recommendations - you know your shit brotha.

[Mariners]

JP's 10 Fav!

1. Under a Blood Red Sky - U2
2. The Joshua Tree - U2
3. Rattle and Hum - U2
4. Achtung Baby - U2
5. Boy - U2
6. October - U2
7. War - U2
8. The Unforgettable Fire - U2
9. Wide Awake in America - U2
10. Pop - U2

Honorable mention
Zooropa - U2
All That You Can't Leave Behind - U2
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb - U2
No Line on the Horizon - U2

[Royals]

JP's 10 Fav!

1. Under a Blood Red Sky - U2
2. The Joshua Tree - U2
3. Rattle and Hum - U2
4. Achtung Baby - U2
5. Boy - U2
6. October - U2
7. War - U2
8. The Unforgettable Fire - U2
9. Wide Awake in America - U2
10. Pop - U2

Honorable mention
Zooropa - U2
All That You Can't Leave Behind - U2
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb - U2
No Line on the Horizon - U2

That sounds about right...

[Cardinals]

Haha. I'll have to revise that when I get home from my class. Order is all sorts of wrong.

[Cardinals]

JP's 10 Fav!

1. Under a Blood Red Sky - U2
2. The Joshua Tree - U2
3. Rattle and Hum - U2
4. Achtung Baby - U2
5. Boy - U2
6. October - U2
7. War - U2
8. The Unforgettable Fire - U2
9. Wide Awake in America - U2
10. Pop - U2

Honorable mention
Zooropa - U2
All That You Can't Leave Behind - U2
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb - U2
No Line on the Horizon - U2

if i were to rank all of U2's albums... would go a little something like this:

1. The Joshua Tree
2. Achtung Baby
3. No Line on the Horizon
4. Pop
5. The Unforgettable Fire
6. All That You Can't Leave Behind
7. Zooropa
8. How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
9. War
10. Rattle and Hum
11. Boy
12. October

I won't count Under a Blood Red Sky and Wide Awake in America since they're live albums. Ditto the compilations (Best of 80-90, 90-00, U2:18). Also will note that No Line could surpass Achtung for me but that is dubious. Songs really came alive on this tour big time from the album.

And thus ends my U2 hijacking, but I didn't start it. And if you really want to know detailed reasons for how/why I rank them like that I'll gladly start a thread or send a 53,409 word essay.

[Nationals]

JP's 10 Fav!

1. Under a Blood Red Sky - U2
2. The Joshua Tree - U2
3. Rattle and Hum - U2
4. Achtung Baby - U2
5. Boy - U2
6. October - U2
7. War - U2
8. The Unforgettable Fire - U2
9. Wide Awake in America - U2
10. Pop - U2

Honorable mention
Zooropa - U2
All That You Can't Leave Behind - U2
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb - U2
No Line on the Horizon - U2

if i were to rank all of U2's albums... would go a little something like this:

1. The Joshua Tree
2. Achtung Baby
3. No Line on the Horizon
4. Pop
5. The Unforgettable Fire
6. All That You Can't Leave Behind
7. Zooropa
8. How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
9. War
10. Rattle and Hum
11. Boy
12. October

I won't count Under a Blood Red Sky and Wide Awake in America since they're live albums. Ditto the compilations (Best of 80-90, 90-00, U2:18). Also will note that No Line could surpass Achtung for me but that is dubious. Songs really came alive on this tour big time from the album.

And thus ends my U2 hijacking, but I didn't start it. And if you really want to know detailed reasons for how/why I rank them like that I'll gladly start a thread or send a 53,409 word essay.

I would like that 53,409 word essay to see how you ranked War so low.

[Cardinals]

Ask and ye shall receive. Expect it sometime this week.

[Orioles]

Been in and out of town chasing jobs in DC/NY, but I had given this some thought a while back so I figured I'd still put my list out there. Most have probably heard them, but still listed a few of my favorite tracks from each anyway.


1. Exile on Main Street, The Rolling Stones – Greatest rock album of all time. Easy answer to the whole "1 album on a deserted island" question for me. The Stones at their bluesy best, made in France while avoiding tax authorities in the UK or US.
Favorite tracks: Rocks Off, Loving Cup, Torn and Frayed, Shine a Light, Sweet Virginia, Tumbling Dice

2. The Bends, Radiohead – Sure, it wasn't the "impact" album OK Computer was, but it's my favorite because it showed Radiohead could use the traditional tools of the rock trade to make an awesome, varied, cutting-edge album true to their unique sound before they turned popular music on its head by blending in bloops and beeps on the next one.
Tracks: Black Star, Just, Bones, High and Dry, The Bends, Planet Telex, Street Spirit (Fade Out)

3. Rubber Factory, The Black Keys – Given how much I love these guys right now, they could easily have taken up 1/3 of my 10 (w/ Thickfreakness and The Big Come Up). Since the Keys are a relatively new obsession, I tried to rein in my enthusiasm for the brand of "heavy soul" Dan Auerbach's guitar has brought to the table. Killer face-melting blues/rock riffs best heard behind the wheel at high volume. I can't get enough of this album. The kind of whiskey + cigarettes blues turned rock I've been looking for, but didn't know it until I heard this band.
Tracks: 10 A.M. Automatic, Stack Shot Billy, Keep Me, All Hands Against His Own, Just Couldn't Tie Me Down, Aeroplane Blues

4. Talkin' Blues, Bob Marley & the Wailers – Technically a live album (most of it was recorded in-studio at a San Francisco radio station in front of a handful of people), but I included it b/c it's a collection of recordings, including cool 5 or 6 sec snippets of Marley talking in an interview in between tracks. Peter Tosh also at his baritone best on a few songs as well. I'm a big fan of the regular studio albums (especially Burnin' and Natty Dread), but this one's so loaded with tracks I love I had to include it here.
Tracks: Kinky Reggae, Slave Driver, Rastaman Chant, Bend Down Low, You Can't Blame the Youth, Walk the Proud Land

5. Illmatic, NaS – The greatest hip-hop album of all-time, imo. I'm a big fan of Nas, but will be the first to admit that he's spent his whole career trying to live up to this unbelievable debut. Pretty amazing that not only was this his first album, but he wasn't even 20 years old when he made it. Loaded w/ classic lyrics like "I never sleep, cause sleep is the cousin of death," Illmatic made Nas the King of New York and is the first (and probably the best) example of how untouchable he is as a lyricist. The only times he's come close to his work on Illmatic, imo (besides when he tore up Jay-Z on the classic diss track "Ether" on a mediocre album called Stillmatic), is on the more recent album God's Son, which is definitely worth picking up if you like this one.
Tracks: N.Y. State of Mind, The World Is Yours, Memory Lane (Sittin' in da Park), It Ain't Hard to Tell, Life's a Bitch

6. The Best of John Lee Hooker, 1965 to 1974, John Lee Hooker – I know it's lame to include a "best of" album, but JLH's best stuff is like a lot of other old blues dudes - kinda random, varying in quality, and spread out across all different records and labels (many no longer in existence). I'm a blues nut, and JLH is my favorite of the Mississippi delta blues men b/c he stayed true to some of his southern roots even after moving north and putting one foot in the Chicago/Detroit blues scene.
Tracks: The Motor City is Burning, Bang Bang Bang Bang, Back Biters and Syndicators, I'm Bad Like Jesse James, Never Get Outta These Blues Alive (w/ Van Morrison), Shake It Baby

7. The Joshua Tree, U2 – I'll leave the pontificating on this album to the resident expert, JP, but I'll never get tired of listening to this record, and it jumped into my top 10 quickly after I first saw the band live on the Pop Mart tour. Track list on this one is prob unnecessary, but for the sake of symmetry...
Tracks: Streets, One Tree Hill, Still Haven't Found, Bullet the Blue Sky, etc

8. You Forgot it in People, Broken Social Scene – Great album from a Toronto art-rock collective (from the same scene that produced bands like Arcade Fire). No two tracks sound anything alike, but they all work well together. The most amazing thing about this album to me is that it never breaks down and becomes just a bunch of noise despite an absurd number of sounds/instruments and moving parts in each track.
Tracks: Almost Crimes, Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl, Cause = Time, Stars and Sons

9. The Meadowlands, The Wrens – If you're a fan of alternative or independent rock made in the last 10 yrs, do yourself a favor and pick this one up. For some reason the band has refused to ride the wave of accolades they got for this awesome album, choosing to play live a few times every couple of years. They've been around forever, and are actually touring now for the band's 20th ann'y (if anyone stumbles upon a ticket to the Dec. 3/4 shows in Hoboken, I'd swear a life-debt to you to see them once). Sort of alterna-power-pop, but w/ good lyrics and voices. Every song is pretty great.
Tracks: This Boy is Exhausted, Everyone Choose Sides, She Sends Kisses, Faster Gun, Ex-Girl Collection, Boys You Won't, 13 Months in 6 Minutes

10. Blood on the Tracks, Bob Dylan – Had to sneak at least one Dylan album into my top 10, and Blood on the Tracks was probably the one that hooked me, so it gets the nod here. Individually, none of the songs make my top 5 Dylan tunes, but as a whole I'd argue it's his best, most accessible, and easiest to listen to repeatedly.
Tracks: Meet Me in the Morning, You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go, Simple Twist of Fate, Shelter from the Storm, Tangled Up in Blue, Idiot Wind


Just missed:

The Colour and the Shape, Foo Fighters
Axis: Bold as Love, The Jimi Hendrix Experience
John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, John Lennon
Up the Bracket, The Libertines
Full Moon Fever, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
Animals, Pink Floyd
Superunknown, Soundgarden


A few other favorite albums:

Kill the Moonlight, Spoon
Morrison Hotel, The Doors
Eat a Peach, The Allman Brothers Band
It Still Moves, My Morning Jacket
Urban Hymns, The Verve
Mermaid Avenue, Billy Bragg & Wilco
The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion, The Black Crowes
Ready to Die, Notorious B.I.G.
The Clash, The Clash
London Calling, The Clash
The Last Broadcast, Doves
The Sky is Crying, Stevie Ray Vaughan
Don't Be A Stranger, Moondoggies
Heartbreaker, Ryan Adams
Hello Nasty, Beastie Boys
New York, Lou Reed
Let It Come Down, Spiritualized
The Great Escape, Blur
Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan
Desire, Bob Dylan
Pump, Aerosmith
The Slow Wonder, A.C. Newman
Turn on the Bright Lights, Interpol
Electric Ladyland, The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Lapalco, Brendan Benson
De Stijl, The White Stripes
Let it Bleed, The Rolling Stones
Castaways and Cutouts, The Decemberists
After the Gold Rush, Neil Young
Harvest, Neil Young
Into the Great Wide Open, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
Discovery, Daft Punk
The Definitive Collection, Desmond Dekker
Original Pirate Material, The Streets
The Minstrel Show, Little Brother
Black on Both Sides, Mos Def
Damn Right I Got the Blues, Buddy Guy
Born to Run, Bruce Springsteen
It's Never Been Like That, Phoenix
Achtung Baby, U2
Undertow, Tool
Soul Food, Goodie Mob
Fantastic Damage, El-P
(What's the Story) Morning Glory?, Oasis
The Harder They Come (Soundtrack), Jimmy Cliff, et. al.
Unplugged in New York, Nirvana
Disraeli Gears, Cream
Pump, Aerosmith
Never Mind the Bollocks, Sex Pistols
Rage Against the Machine, Rage Against the Machine
Bang Bang Rock and Roll, Art Brut
3 Feet High and Rising, De La Soul
Fate, Dr. Dog

[Angels]

Thanks to Dan's extensive list, I'll post some of my favorite non-metal albums.....Greatest Hits albums included.

Steely Dan - Greatest Hits - My all-time fave non-metal band
Foo Fighters - The Colour and the Shape - great record
Earth, Wind and Fire - Greatest Hits (I'm a metalhead, but these guys must have wakened every morning thinking "Yeah, we're the best of all time.....")
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Street Survivors - Steve Gaines!!!
Cypress Hill - Skull and Bones - Great Rap/Metal mix
Bone Thugs & Harmony - Creepin on a Come up - My fave rap CD of all time
Kentucky Headhunters - Rave On - Southern Rock when it wasn't "cool"
Fates Warning - Awaken the Guardian - 80's metal that missed the original cut
All Goo Goo Dolls - (just don't tell my friends)
Lit - Atomic - better than Green Day when Green Day was huge......
The Black Crowes - cool and never compromised.....
And Greatest Hits from - Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel, Bob Seger, Doobie Brothers.

[Orioles]

Hard to believe I left anything out w such a long list, but Kelly reminded me of one that slipped by... Steely Dan's Can't Buy a Thrill. Definitely a great band.